Time's Edge
by Tempral Bouncer
Summary: Origional FicGimme Characters -- The Fic. You submitted your characters, here is their story. R
1. Dream and Fight

Author's Note: Okay... finally got the first chapter posted. I think it's okay. That's what my beta reader said anyway. Please, REVIEW. I need reviews, they'll help me figure out how to write better. ^^

I wasn't sure what to rate it. It will earn a PG-13 rating in later parts though, so I decided to just start out there, and not have to change it in the future.

One other thing -- I obviously could not use every character in this chapter. Please don't be mad if I didn't use your character yet. I promise I'm going to use every character I got. But I got 29 of them... so I may not get around to using yours for a little while.

Disclaimer: Are you stupid? Of course I don't own Pokémon, if I did, I would be in Hawaii or something on a permanent vacation. Not sitting in front of my computer writing fanfiction. Make money off this? Ha, I wish...

And now... On with the fic!

Time's Edge

Chapter One: Dream and Fight

Eyes.

A faint golden glow permeated the otherwise black void of her mind. She somehow knew that it was a dream, yet she could not move her body.

The air around her swirled and rippled, sending waves outward from the glowing eyes. Where the waves passed, images formed. Enormous marble pillars, encased in intricate designs of gold and silver appeared periodically, stretching up toward a ceiling made of solid gray rock that must have been at least a mile above them. 

Hundreds of houses formed, but they were strange beyond imagination. Each was different, and yet somehow they were all the same. They were all approximately the same height -- two stories -- and were all made out of some sort of rough concreatish substance. The similarities ended there though.

The dwellings varied in color. One was a deep maroon swirled with turquoise, like vivid paints which had been run through a blender, but somehow stayed separate. Another was pure ocean-blue, with little splotches of white sprinkled across its surface. Each of them was shaped slightly differently, with bumps and indentations scattered across them, almost as if they were gigantic coral houses.

The roads seemed covered in gold and silver. These paths were obviously not designed for cars, they were never more than three feet in width. The same type of hieroglyphic artistry coated the streets as was on the pillars.

Various people walked along these streets. Some were old men, walking alone and contemplating some important question of life. Elsewhere, couples meandered along, holding hands and chatting happily without a care in the world. On the bare, gray stone in front of the houses, children ran about, screaming and laughing happily while their parents watched on from a window, smiling at their children's games.

In the center of the gigantic cavern, an enormous sky-blue crystal jutted out of the rock. It was over twenty five feet tall, and at least ten feet wide. Surrounded by a circle of golden hieroglyphs, it was set apart from the rest of the cavern. No one approached it -- it seemed almost as if people were avoiding it.

In the center of the crystal, haunting golden eyes looked out over the city. She wondered to whom the eyes belonged, and the glow instantly intensified from a soft, mellow light to a blindingly bright rainbow of colors; so intense that the rest of the cavern was no longer visible. As the eyes glew brighter, the dreamer felt intense pain -- and then nothing.

~~~

Rei North bolted up in her bed, covered in sweat and barely managing to stifle a scream. She spent a minute just calming her breathing, then untangled herself from her bed sheets and went to get a drink of water. It was two o'clock in the morning according to her bed stand clock.

She had that dream again. The same dream she had been having for the last month and a half now. She still had no idea what it meant, or if it even meant anything at all. She had never heard of anyplace like that weird cavern-thingy in her dreams, and she had done a LOT of research to try to find it. She was very good at finding things out, so she figured that if it had been discovered -- if it even really existed -- she would have located it by now. _Maybe I'm just going crazy,_ she thought to herself.

She walked into the dimly lit bathroom, turning up the lights slightly as she passed the switch. Rei grabbed a cup from the closet and filled it with water from the sink. As she was filling the cup with water, she noticed her reflection in the mirror mounted above the sink. 

At 5'5'' with blue hair and gray eyes, Rei definitely stood out in a crowd. Normally in a good way, although she thought that the sweat soaked nightshirt clinging to her body didn't make her look particularly attractive right now. 

She drank the water, then turned on the tap again and splashed water on her face. A Ninetales let out a loud yell from somewhere in the forest, startling her. She laughed at herself a little for being so jumpy and decided to go back to bed. She had never had that stupid dream more than once in a night, so with luck, she would be able to get some quality sleep in before her alarm went off four hours from now.

~~~

Kaze Uta walked along the path toward Goldenrod City, capital of the whole Johto region. She already had two badges, and given how easy it had been to get them, she wasn't expecting any problems earning her Plain Badge. The gym leaders she had met so far seemed... pathetic. 

She had used Dratini to defeat all three of Falkner's Pokemon, and Ponyta to take all three of Bugsy's. They were both great Pokemon... but not particularly highly leveled. They should not have been able to beat gym leaders on their own. Sure, maybe beat one or possibly even two of their Pokemon, but not all three. Dratini was only level 23, he was practically still a baby.

She had heard rumors of Team Rocket activity in Goldenrod, although as of yet she had no idea what they were doing there. Team Rocket had been increasing activity all over the place, there had been reports of attacks on numerous travelers through both Johto and Kanto. Kaze wasn't worried. 

She had two extremely strong Pokemon of her own, and if worst came to worst, she was quite proficient at fighting on her own. Most people she met who might have considered attacking her took one look at her sword and reconsidered their plan on the basis that they didn't want to be cut in half. A few didn't, they usually ended up... cut in half.

Kaze was about 5'10'' tall, with long, silverish-blue hair, falling to her upper thighs. The sides of her hair were trimmed to chin length with two triangular buns on either side. There was some sort of symbol on her forehead, but it was obscured by her bangs and almost looked as though it were a trick of the lights. She was dressed all in black, black jean shorts, black fingerless gloves, a black materialized bra with the locket in the center, and a black sleeveless over-jacket which was left open. The locket had a picture of eight circles of different colors surrounding a crescent moon. She also had a fairly large sword, in a black sheath hanging from her waist. 

The sun had just risen about an hour ago, so it was still fairly low in the sky, but Kaze was sure she saw something coming in her general direction; apparently trying to use the sun's glare and trees for visual cover. Luckily for her, Kaze had good eyes. 

__

Be logical, she thought to herself,_ there must be a million people coming and going from Goldenrod every day... _This is probably just a transport to one of the more distant cities. But even as she thought that, she realized that the approaching whatever was slowing down, its shadow's speed was obviously decreasing. _Not good._

Within another second, Kaze could make out that it was a black helicopter with the familiar red Team Rocket logo on it. _Great, just what I need..._ The chopper slowed to a hover directly in front of Kaze. She fingered the hilt of her sword nervously. Thankfully, there were no guns on it. Guns weren't very common in Johto and Kanto.

The side of the helicopter opened, revealing a tall man in his late twenties with sunglasses. He was wearing motorcycle gear. He leapt out of the opening and landed gracefully on the ground. The helicopter then closed up and took off, headed in the same direction it was originally going.

"Well, well, what have we here?" he asked in a voice that sounded slightly insane in Kaze's opinion. Kaze simply narrowed her eyes in response, and fingered Ditto's pokéball. "Aww, poor little girl scared? Ha, time to die I think..." He pulled out a pokéball and threw it silently.

It split open, revealing a threatening Gengar. "Gengar, use Night Shade on that girl!"

Kaze reacted faster than the eye could follow. First, jumping up over the ghost Pokémon's attack, secondly, by throwing Ditto's pokéball so that the little imitation Pokémon would appear right behind its ghost counterpart. 

"Ditto, transform!" she commanded. Ditto obeyed instantly, altering itself until it was an exact copy of Gengar. "Use Psychic!" She commanded as soon as the transformation finished. Ditto launched the attack at Gengar's back, lifting it up into the air and hurling it over twenty feet away.

Gengar landed on its feet and launched itself into the air the second the attack ended. 

"Gengar, use Shadow Ball on - Aghhh!" While Gengar had been flying, Kaze had launched herself at the Rocket trainer, and hit him mid-sentence. They both fell to the ground, but whereas the Rocket just lay there for a few seconds, Kaze landed on her hands and propelled herself into a flip, twisting around in midair and yanking her sword out of its sheath upon landing.

"Think you're hot stuff huh? Try this on for size!" He pulled out another pokéball and released a Misdreavus. This guy apparently had a thing for ghosts...

"Ditto, Psywave on the new one!"

"Misdreavus, Gengar, use Night Shade!"

Ditto's Psywave headed straight for Misdreavus, but the ghost Pokémon dodged it easily and both of the Rocket's ghosts countered with Night Shade. Ditto was knocked out of commission. 

I'm in trouble now, though Kaze as she glanced worriedly from ghost to ghost.

End Chapter One

Post Chapter Notes: Cliffhanger! Will Kaze escape be able to defeat the ghost Rocket Trainer? 

Thankies to my beta reader, Ara Moon. Without her help, this fic would NOT have been posted on time.

Both the as of yet unnamed Rocket Trainer and Rei North belong to Airfire0, Kaze Uta belongs to Ara Moon.

There, finally done w/chapter one! Wow. That took a while. LoL. The next part should be substantially longer, and should be out around next Monday. 

Please REVIEW. I need feedback if I'm going to improve my writing. Please, tell me what you liked and what you didn't.


	2. Training Base

Authors Note: Sorry this took so long to get out, I wasn't really sure how to do chapter two… I think this is okay. But again, I need feedback to improve. Tell what you liked and what you didn't like in your review. You are going to review right? Good, I thought so -- just making sure. ^_^. Chapter three should be out a lot faster (reviews help to motivate me… hint hint) Sorry it's so short.

One other thing. If anyone wants me to beta their fics, e-mail me or something. Mesa like to beta. ^_^.

Time's Edge

Chapter Two: Training Base

Marcus Torrent piloted the large black helicopter down onto the concealed landing pad at the Team Rocket base in Mt. Mortar. It had taken over three hours to get from Goldenrod to the hidden Rocket training camp. Only two trainers had seen them, a young boy traveling along route 42 and a strange looking girl carrying a sword outside Goldenrod. He had left behind a fully trained agent to deal with each of the children. They wouldn't be telling anything to anyone.

The Goldenrod base had thirty three new recruits for the team, all of whom where seated comfortably in the back of the helicopter. The Boss had recently called for massive recruiting to be done by all Rockets. For every recruit you brought in who successfully made it onto the team, you received a "generous" bonus. Marcus had made sure to get several himself, but with his high level position in the training base he didn't get out much to find any. 

The metal blades groaned slightly as he shut down the engine and he watched as the helicopter descended down the familiar scantily-lit rock tunnel. What was now the base had originally just been part of the random tunnels within the mountain, most likely dug out by groups of Diglett and Dugtrio. Most people think it would be impossible to establish a secret base in Mt. Mortar because so many trainers pass through it; but even with all of the trainer traffic, the mountain was still big enough that no unwanted visitors had as of yet run across the base. They had sealed it off with fake rock walls, which appeared identical to the cave's walls. 

As he walked down the pilot's landing ramp, he saw the recruits being lined up and marched off for basic training. _Sucks to be them,_ he thought. Basic training was a rather... unpleasant experience on Team Rocket. On the other side of the rather large hanger bay, two Rockets were having their pokemon beat the crap out of each other. 

Marcus walked around the battle and through the exit to the hanger bay, all the while wanting to kill the humans. He had long ago realized that the human race was corrupt. Team Rocket was a prime example of that corruption; but they were certainly useful. 

Just before he got out of the hanger bay, a young boy with purple eyes who was not in uniform walked up to him and asked "My name is Bobbis, may I please borrow an apricot?" as if it was the most sensible request in the world.

"I don't have any apricots, leave me alone," Marcus replied.

As he was walking away, Marcus heard the boy muttering to himself, "Damn, how can I get back to New Mexico without an apricot?" _What a freaky child,_ he thought.

The corridor on the other side of the large metal door was empty. Marcus strolled along the dim hallway toward the boss's office. Well, the boss of this base anyway. He was required to give a report upon returning from each successful recruiting run.

The base was virtually impossible to navigate without the assistance of a map for all but those who lived there. Mt. Mortar had been selected specifically because of its passageway's natural complexity. They make it virtually impossible to effectively attack the base.

As he walked, a small fly zipped around his head. "Buzz off," he muttered as he swatted at it and it flew off to bother someone else. As he approached the boss's office, he could hear shouting of some sort. Not particularly unusual, the boss here loved to scream at people. Especially terrified newer members. Marcus almost felt sorry for whoever it was... almost. 

He sat down on one of the wonderfully padded, ornately decorated seats outside the office to wait for his turn to report. The yelling died down after a few minutes, and the grandiose, intricately carved wooden door flew open, revealing a large angry man covered in metallic body armor with a gun at his left hip. He glared at Marcus and stormed down the passageway in the direction Marcus had just came. _My turn_, thought Marcus.

As he got up, another fly buzzed around his head twice and flew off down the corridor. _What is it with this place and bugs?_

The office was rather large, obviously much more so than was necessary. It had a large wooden desk with similarly artistic carvings to those on the door, two computers, shelves upon shelves of unread books, and incredibly expensive wooden chairs with red velvet pillows resting on top of them.

The boss himself was sitting on an enormous, ridiculously expensive, beautiful leather chair. He wore a black business suit, with a black tie and black sunglasses. His face was slightly red from anger, presumably at whoever Marcus had just seen leaving. He could almost have looked intimidating, with his hands cupped together, fingers intertwined and the death glare he was giving off. Except that he was only about 4' tall.

"So what was that all about?" Marcus asked.

"Nothing that concerns you, now shut up and give me your report."

Marcus bit back a comment about how he couldn't shut up _and_ give his report at the same time; it probably would have gotten him killed. The boss hated being outdone, but he was one of the stupidest people Marcus had ever known. 

"Well sir, Goldenrod had thirty three new recruits for us, they're all in processing now. We ran into two trainers on the way, but Jek Fisher took care of one and I let Yuurei Harris take the other. Yuurei got a strange one... she was carrying a sword. Anyway, they're both dead now, so they won't be telling anyone about the Rocket helicopter flight they saw." 

"Good... good, have you heard any new news about the Mt. Silver mining project?" 

"No, I haven't," replied Marcus. "I'll let you know if I do, sir." He just barely added the 'sir' onto the end, as if he had remembered it at the last minute. The boss glared at him but didn't say anything.

"Alright Torrent, unless you have anything else to report, you're dismissed."

Marcus nodded once, and walked silently out of the office. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

*Why does he have to be a ghost trainer?* Kaze thought. 

With Ditto taken out, she only had one other highly leveled pokemon available: Espeon. But physic types are weak against ghosts; Espeon wouldn't be much help in this situation. She would have to take down the trainer and hope that his pokemon decided to help their master rather than attack her.

Kaze recalled Ditto and ran towards the Rocket, sword held straight up in preparation for her swing. 

"Double attack psychic on that girl trainer. NOW!" the Rocket commanded. 

The gaseous pokemon complied immediately, sending a massive blast of psychic energy at the young woman -- but she was no longer there. Kaze had heard the order, same as the ghosts, so she lept forward as far as she could, executing a flip in midair to increase her momentum.

She landed solidly on both feet and jabbed her sword toward the trainer's stomach. She didn't want to kill him, that would enrage his pokemon to the point where they would simply kill her as retribution. Her goal was to injury him badly enough that they were forced to teleport him to the nearest hospital, and leave her here. 

The Rocket lept backwards, but Kaze had anticipated this and threw her body forward, swinging to the side and bringing her sword in a wide arc designed to slash open his stomach. True, this might kill him, but he would not die immediately -- so he would still be taken to a hospital. Hopefully. Then again, the ghosts might decide to kill her anyway.

Her sword whistled through the air, and left a long bloody gash in her attacker's stomach. Kaze didn't wait around to find out what they decided to do. She turned and sprinted off into the forest surrounding the path she was on so fast that her body would have looked like a blur to anyone watching.

She kept up that pace for almost two minutes, just putting distance between her and the path. As soon as she stopped, she released Espeon and ordered her to scan the area for pursuit using his psychic powers. 

Espeon didn't ask questions, she simply obeyed, stretching out with her psychic powers. She couldn't sense anything abnormal. Well, Kaze seemed on edge, but other than that, everything was as it should be. When Espeon turned to report this to Kaze she noticed that her master was drenched in sweat and the sharper edge of her sword was covered in a thin coat of blood. She was also breathing heavily.

"I'm alright," she said, noticing her pokemon's concerned glance. "Is there anyone following us?" Espeon shook her head no. "Good, I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't continue to Goldenrod now. Where could we go? We should head basically to the other side of Johto, maybe even Kanto. Team Rocket's gonna be mad as hell when they find out that I beat the shit out of their agent. Can you use your powers to project a map of Johto, Espeon?"

She complied, her eyes glew white and a dot of light flashed in front of Kaze, expanding up into a square transparent map of Johto - complete with city's and landmarks. "Hmm. Blackthorn City or New Bark Town? Blackthorn. More expert trainers there, less of a chance of a T.R. influence." 

"Thanks Espeon, return." The red light engulfed Espeon, sucking her back into the ball. After calling out Ditto, healing him with potions, and recalling him, Kaze set off for Blackthorn City.

Post Fic Notes: Okay… finally done with chapter 2. I'm thinking that your character will appear sooner if you review… just seems fairer that way. I'm gonna be introducing a lot of new characters next chapter, so stay tuned. ^_^ Again, sorry about the shortness.

Bobbis is my brother's character. He's just sort of a random evil dude. I'd like your comments on him. ^_^.

Also, to my knowledge, non-pokemon bugs have not yet appeared in the series, game or manga. They obviously do exist in my little version of the pokeworld though. My justification is that… well, there isn't really a good justification, other than this is a fanfic, so I don't have to do things exactly how the show does. No other real world animals will exist. ^_^.

Random Question: Does anyone know a one word synonym for the word synonym? Cuz I don't think there is one and I just find that amusing for some reason.

Thankies for the reviews to those who reviewed / are about to review.

T B


	3. Shadows

A/N: Sorry I took so long. I'm a slow-as-hell baka. You know those people who basically act like they'll procrastinate later? That's me. Hehe. The next chapter is already partially written, and should be out a lot sooner. Summer now and all. Remember: reviews motivate me, so if you want the next chapter out sooner, review.

Note: Last chapter, I forgot to mention that the unnamed mercenary belongs to BeJammin and Marcus Torrent belongs to Katie H. The boss of that base is mine. Although I don't really want him. You can take him if you want him. -.-

This chapter: Rio Starbright belongs to GIRs cupcake. Ryan Tani belongs to Raven Star. Sasha Hawk belongs to Dragonet. Sarah and Kyp are mine.

Note: I gave dark types the ability to communicate with people. I don't think they normally can. This is fanfiction, and since I'm the author, I'm all powerful. ^_^

Time's Edge

Chapter Three: Shadows

Outside the Team Rocket training base at Mt. Mortar, a young girl with purple hair sat, her back against an enormous maple tree, eyes closed, legs bent up toward her chest, arms encircling her legs. She was dressed all in black; a black tee shirt, black shorts and black boots. She appeared to be asleep.

The tree's shadow moved, twisting in on itself and spreading up into the air, forming into the shape of an umbreon. Color spread throughout the shadow, and it solidified into a real pokemon seconds later. The girl opened her eyes slowly and looked over at the dark type. "Took you long enough. I was bored out of my wits. Did you find anything?"

__

Quite a bit actually, responded the dark type, ignoring her trainer's complaint.

"Care to share?"

__

Hey, that rhymed. You're a poet and you didn't know it.

"No comment… so what did you find out?"

__

All right, all right. The rockets are making some sort of move in Saffron. I'm not sure what though, I only overhead the end of the conversation. They also seem to have recovered several potentially valuable artifacts from some underground excavation site just outside of Blackthorn.

"Great..." she said sarcastically, "Who'd you overhear talking?"

__

The boss of the base and some mercenary who got assigned to Saffron. They were arguing about pay or something. 

"Did they mention his assignment?"

__

He's just supposed to commit random acts of violence. Get the police's attention and stuff. And they mentioned something about jewelry. Not sure what they meant though.

"All right then, let's get moving. Saffron's a full day's hike from here."

__

But Rio, if Team Rocket's gonna attack Saffron, shouldn't we stay away from it?

"No way," she said as she started back toward the path. "There's a big tournament there Nightrunner. That's where most of the area's good trainers'll be.. Imagine what would happen if T.R. took out all of them, and stole their pokemon. They would have a virtually unstoppable army. Saffron's also the capital of the region, so if it falls, the remaining cities be able to make an organized strike against the Rockets. See?"

__

Yes. You know they won't listen though.

"Yeah. But maybe we can at least set up some sort of escape route for the trainers or something."

__

Okay, he said, following alongside his trainer.

~*~

Two figures walked along the path to Saffron City.

The taller stood at about five feet ten and wore an unzipped red windbreaker, with a brown short sleeve shirt underneath it, and brown pants. He had somewhat short, light brown hair and blue eyes. Given the heat, he should've been burning up, but he hadn't even broken a sweat. On his belt was a single pokeball.

His companion was an inch shorter than him, dressed in a slightly worn green tank top and black jean shorts. Her hair was also brown, reaching down just past her shoulders. Her mouth was moving nonstop, and had been for the past hour or so.

"But what I don't understand is why he used a houndour. He had to know that it wouldn't stand a chance against Starmie. Aside from the obvious level advantage, Starmie had type advantage on her side. What was he thinking? Oh, by the way, you have a dickfore on your forehead."

A slight smile touched his lips as he listened to his friend ranting about her battle from earlier this morning. He sometimes wondered if she needed to breath in between sentences.

"Very funny Sarah, yes I am listening to you, and no, I'll never fall for that."

"It was worth a try..."

"Not really."

"I didn't see a reason not to."

"That's 'cause you're blind."

"I see... well then, why haven't I walked off the path?"

"My theory is that talking for you is like echo-location for bats. You give off so much sound that it bounces back to you and creates an image-that's why you never shut up."

"Yeah, but at least it means I don't have to actually look at you; after all, you blinded me in the first place."

The boy's right arm turned completely green and two eyes opened an inch below his shoulder the instant Sarah finished her sentence.

"Gah! You know I hate it when you do that Kyp. Arms should not be green."

"So you can see; echolocation can't distinguish colors last I checked. I guess I need a new theory… maybe you're psychic? No… that wouldn't work… missing the prerequisites…"

"Baka Kyp-kun..."

"Well, if I'm such a baka, then how come I outsmarted you?"

"Well actually, if you think about it..." A howling from somewhere within the forest interrupted Sarah mid-comeback . It lasted for about 15 seconds, then stopped abruptly. 

Kyp's arm returned to normal again less than a second after the howl had started, and he immediately began visually scanning over the area it had come from.

Sarah reached for her pokeballs and released Growlithe, who assumed a defensive position in front of the pair.

~*~

Rio had been walking for hours, and the sun had just begun to set, giving the sky that familiar sunset-pinkish-orange color. It highlighted the clouds perfectly, giving the whole atmosphere a peaceful, dream-like feel. 

As she walked along, a trainer came into view in front of her along the side of the road. He looked a bit older than she did and was wearing all black, save for fingerless red gloves on each hand. Blue sunglasses covered his eyes, and he was hunched, unmoving, over something on the side of the path. Beside him stood a meganium, equally interested in whatever its master was studying.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked as she walked toward him.

He turned around to look at her, and in moving, allowed her to see what he was hunched over. It was a little yellow pichu, who looked hurt. "Ohh, is it okay?"

"No, he's injured. I'm so stupid. Let him wander around a meadow and he got attacked by a rattata. Forgot how weak he still is. Do you have any potions or anything?" He sounded desperate to help his poor little pokemon.

"Yeah, wait one second and I'll get one out of my pack." 

Rio swung her backpack around her shoulder, crouched down onto the ground, reached into it, and dug around for the potion. Thankfully, she kept the pack relatively well organized, so it took practically no time to find, even though it was all the way on the bottom. 

"Here ya go," she said and handed the little white spray bottle to the boy.

He grabbed it and smiled gratefully, then turned around to spray it on Pichu's wounds. The little rodent started to heal instantly, and his trainer recalled him to accelerate the process.

"Thanks for the help. My name's Ryan Tani, and this is my meganuim, Iris."

"Rio Starbright, where ya headed?"

Ryan smiled "Saffron, I'm supposed to meet my sister there. She's competing in the tournament. She wanted me to come watch."

"Aww, that's sweet. So wait, you sounded like you're not competing yourself?"

"Nope. Taking a break from all the tournaments and fanfare and all that for a while, decided to just train. How 'bout you? Gonna be competing?"

"No, but I'm still going," Rio considered telling him about Team Rocket's plan, but decided against it. She didn't know that much herself anyway, and if his sister was going, then she wasn't going to worry him yet. The attacks weren't scheduled to start for another two days anyway.

"Cool, well in that case, how 'bout we get moving? We can talk more on the way," Ryan suggested.

"Sure," she replied.

~*~

Sasha ran after the blue haired Rocket who had dared to enter her forest haven. True, the girl wasn't wearing a uniform, but her posture, and her attitude and... her whole being just screamed Rocket. She was headed out of the forest, toward the path to the city. Pointless of course, she could not outrun Sasha.

Normally, Sasha wouldn't have tried to kill random passerby's, but Rockets were totally different than other people. They all deserved to die. They were the ones who had done the experiments on her, turned her into this ninetales-human hybrid.

She smiled as she fingered Angel's pokeball at her belt. Angel; such a deceptive name. 

The Rocket reached the path just ahead of her, and in the second it took her to follow, a growlithe had moved between Sasha and the young Rocket trainer. Behind it stood a young girl. 

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way. NOW!" 

The non-rocket girl, presumably the growlithe's master, freaked out at her slightly at Sasha's appearance, but regained her composure seconds later. "No."

Her companion looked almost bored, as if he wasn't concerned or disturbed by the appearance of a half-ninetales. 

"Go, Angel!" she yelled, releasing one of her most powerful pokemon. Both of the girls chuckled slightly upon hearing the name, but their mouths dropped when 'Angel' actually materialized. Houndooms generally have that effect on people.

The non-rocket regained her composure first, stepping forward and saying, "You think you and your demented dark doggie scare me? Think again. No way it can beat me and Kyp."

Her companion, apparently named Kyp, looked on indifferently. "Actually, I think I'll let you handle this one Sarah. It shouldn't be too hard." Kyp calmly sat down on the edge of the dirt path, rested most of his weight on his arms behind him, and looked at the battle-to-be with a bored as hell expression on his face.

__

What's that guy's problem? I'll show him. "Angel, Faint Attack, take out the little growlithe first, then go for the Rocket."

"Dig."

Houndoom vanished from sight, but when he reappeared a fraction of a second later, Growlithe was already underground. The giant black dog focused all his senses on the ground around him, watching for any slight movement that would give away his opponents location. Unfortunately for him, he forgot to watch the ground under him. His opponent hadn't moved after going underground.

Growlithe exploded up, slamming into Houndoom's vulnerable underbelly. The dark type flew threw the air and crashed through a tree, causing it to fall toward the Rocket. Sarah tackled the bewildered girl out of the way before the tree fell on her, and ordered Growlithe to finish the Houndoom with a Quick Attack.

~*~

"I could use some help here Kyp, if you wouldn't mind that is. I wouldn't want to impose or anything."

"You're doing just fine without my help. I'm confident in your ability to handle the situation. Look, you already beat that 'demonic Angel', what's she gonna have that's more powerful than that?"

"Frelling son of a ditto," she mumbled under her breath.

"Go! Cleopatra!" Sasha yelled.

"Crap," Sarah said. Cleopatra, a typhlosion, stood almost three meters tall, with an all-to-large-to-make-you-want-to-fight-it-flame. She recalled Growlithe, and sent out Starmie.

"Cleopatra, Wheel of Flames! Forget the starmie, take out it's master."

The overgrown lizard pokemon burst into flames and spun around on the ground. It rolled toward Sarah, kicking up superheated dirt and causing the ground behind it to blacken. Sarah waited until a second before the lizard pokémon hit her, until she could feel the heat from the flames warming her face, then threw herself to the side, executing a somersault and stopping it as soon as she could.

The typhlosion turned for another attack. Sarah had already anticipated this, and had stopped rolling about a meter short of his turning radius. He rolled right past her. He spun out several meters and turned around for another pass.

"Starmie, Hydro Pump," she ordered.

The water pokémon launched a powerful stream of water at the typhlosion, which hit the still-spinning pokémon mid-turn. He flew backwards and crashed into the tree trunk that that houndoom had inadvertently knocked down.

Sarah whipped out Espeon's pokéball and released the powerful psychic eevee evolution. If her opponent could attack her, she saw no reason not to attack her opponent.

"Psychic on the fox-girl!" Sarah commanded.

Espeon's eyes glew white and a matching aura surrounded the enemy trainer. She was picked up off the ground and hurled nearly twenty meters down the path.

~*~

Sasha landed hard on her back and skidded across the dirt path for another meter or so. She then rolled backwards and assessed the situation. She was pretty sure she could take on the girl. Jigglypuff just had to sing her enemies to sleep.

"Cleopatra, return. Cleff, I choose you!" The little pink balloon pokémon formed in front of her. "Use sing to put them all to sleep, leave only us awake."

Cleff started singing instantly, and within seconds, the trainers were all asleep. Sasha calmly walked over toward them, and re-released Cleopatra.

"Kill them all." The typhlosion raised it's right claw to attack, but before killing the brown haired girl, turned to Sasha and asked, "Why are we killing them, they are not Rockets." Since Sasha was part pokémon, she could understand Cleopatra as easily as she could any human.

"Blue hair is. Kill her."

"No she's not. We've had this discussion before. You can't tell whether a person is with Team Rocket based on how they look. Please, don't kill her. Killing Rockets is fine, they deserve it, but she's innocent."

"Fine. You win, this time."

The sun was almost finished setting by now and there was almost no light to see by, although since Sasha's senses were heightened, the lack of light didn't really effect her.

Sasha recalled Cleopatra and Cleff and walked back into the darkening forest.

~*~

Kyp waited until the girl was gone, then waited another minute. Once he was sure she wasn't coming back, he got up and walked over to the still-sleeping Sarah. She was a better trainer than the ninetales girl, Kyp was sure of that. Usually, Jigglypuff's song knocked out everyone who heard it, but she had stayed awake during it. Strange.

Kyp had blocked sound from entering his ears, thereby preventing him from falling asleep. However, since the other trainer wasn't part ditto like Kyp-or at least he assumed she wasn't-he had no idea why she didn't just fall asleep like everyone else.

Kyp bent over and shook his friend awake.

"What happened?" she asked groggily. Then, before Kyp could answer her question, she remembered on her own. "Is that girl okay?"

"Her breathing and heart rate look normal from here, she's alive at least."

"Good, let's wake her up and get outta here," Sarah said.

~*~

"Wake up," someone said quietly to Rei.

"Huh? I'm awake," she said, "What happened?"

"Actually, we were hoping you could tell us, my name's Sarah Dia and this is my friend, Kyp Noch," said a young brown haired girl.

"My name's Rei North, thanks for saving me."

"Her pleasure," Kyp said. "So who was that?"

Rei laughed a little and Sarah mock-glared at Kyp, remembering his lack of help.

"I have no idea actually. I heard a ninetales howling in the forest repeatedly last night, and decided to come see if it needed help. That girl-pokémon was the one who was howling though. She seemed to think I'm part of Team Rocket or something."

"Are you?" Kyp asked bluntly.

"Nooooooo…" Rei replied.

"Okay," Kyp said. 

"So you headed to Saffron?"

"Yeah, I can show you to the Pokécenter if you want."

"Oh, that's okay, we wouldn't wanna impose or anything," Sarah said.

"You just saved my life… don't worry 'bout imposing, 'kay?"

"Alright. Hear that Kyp? I don't have to worry 'bout imposing. But since you didn't do anything, you do," Sarah smiled evilly.

Kyp facefaulted.

"So where are we gonna sleep? We usually just sleep outside on the city's outskirts, but with that freak running around I'd prefer to sleep indoors," Sarah said.

"Don't worry. You can stay at the Pokemon Center."

~*~

"Or not." 

The center was totally packed. Little kids were running all over the place, either playing tag or trying to kill each other, Rei wasn't sure which. Then there were small groups of older kids hanging around talking; some sat on the couches or chairs, but due to the lack of places to sit, most just stood. 

An enormous, unruly line had formed in front of the desk. Nurse Joy was running back and forth between the center's sick-bay and the main desk. The people on the line were restless and seemed like they had been waiting forever. The ones at the front were arguing with Nurse Joy while she was at the desk, and amongst each other while she wasn't.

Rei seriously doubted that the center had enough space for Kyp and Sarah to spend the night. With all these people, some would probably end up sleeping outside.

"Jeez, why are all these people here? Did everyone just decide to take a vacation to Saffron all of a sudden?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, that's right," Rei said, snapping her fingers, "The big regional tournament is being held here in two weeks. But why are all these people here so early? You would think they would wait until a day or two before the tournie to show up."

"They just wanna make sure they have a place to stay while competing," Kyp said.

"Why wouldn't they wait a little though, the local hotel is reserved for participants..." Rei asked.

"They all figured they'd be the early birds I guess. Make sure they get a nice room at the local Center or something. People are stupid like that. Or maybe they have some other, unknown but equally stupid reason," Sarah said. "Or maybe there's some sort of pre-tournament or something. Regardless, I should go get officially registered before they run out of openings, shouldn't I?"

Kyp laughed, and Sarah realized that she had just accidentally come up with the right reason that people were here early - to register before the tournament fills up. Rei realized the same thing a second later, and the three started laughing uncontrollably.

"It's really," Sarah said in between laughs, "not that funny."

"Yes it is," Kyp responded, still laughing himself.

Rei, unused to the way that her two new friends always manipulated words, didn't see why it was that funny.

Kyp noticed the confusion on her face, and after getting his laughter under control, explained it to her.

"Okay, it's not that funny. But if you noticed, she had just been insulting everyone who had come here to register, then decided to go register herself when she figured out why they were here. If anyone else had said it, we wouldn't have laughed that much. But Sarah's always bragging about her wordplay abilities, so for her to say something like that is pretty bad. It's funnier if it's not explained."

"It's still pretty funny actually," Rei said now once again laughing, "Hey listen, I've got two extra bedrooms at my house, and I bet my parents would be fine with letting you stay for at least a night or two."

"Well we wouldn't wanna - " Sarah cut Kyp off mid-sentence.

"Oh, shut up Kyp. She wouldn't have made the offer if it was an imposition. 'Sides I don't have to worry 'bout that, remember?"

To be continued…

Okay, I set up a mailing list to tell people when each new chapter comes out. If you want on, e-mail me telling me. My e-mail is Tempral_Bouncer@hotmail.com. 

If you want off, just respond telling me so.

Lastly PLEASE REVIEW. I need feedback.

If you do not review, there is very little chance of your character appearing. Conversely if you do review a lot, your character will get quite a bit of "screen time." ^^

Thankies 

T B


	4. The Trail to Saffron

Pre-Fic Author's Notes:

Erm, I know that this took a while.  Much, much longer than it should have.  I don't really have a good reason for that, so I'm sorry.  I do plan on working on it on a regular basis now; I'm going to aim for a chapter about every two weeks, cause I'm reasonably sure I can make that happen.  Might be faster, depending on work loads and such, but expect one every two weeks or so.

Kaze Uta belongs to Ara Moon

Rio Starbright belongs to GIRs Cupcake

Ryan Tani belongs to Raven Star

Time's Edge

Chapter 4

The Trail to Saffron

Kaze slammed the broad side of her blade against the attacking Ratticate's head, knocking it out cold but not fatally injuring it.  With an annoyed huff, she resheathed her sword and released Espeon from her pokeball.  "Espeon, could you teleport us to Kanto, please?  I'm very, very sick of running into all of these wild pokemon.  They're annoying, they're slowing me down, and they're leaving a big, bright, neon blazing trail through the forest for any rockets who come after us."

_Erm__, Kaze, you remember what happened last time I tried to teleport us to a city?_

"That was a long time ago, and the stains came out eventually.  It wasn't that big of a deal."

_The stains came out, yes, but the smell was so bad you ended up having to get me a new pokeball._

"But it's all better now.  The past is the past.  Besides, you're exaggerating, it wasn't that bad."

_Kaze__, we landed in a pile of tauros shit.  Fifteen miles from the nearest settlement.  It was bad._

"Well, yeah, but think of all the time we could save this way!  Besides, you're much more powerful now."

_You're not going to give up, are you?_

"Do I ever?"

Espeon sighed.  _Alright then.__  Where to?_

"Saffron."

_You realize that the Rockets used to have a large base there, right?_

"Yeah, but it was shut down last year, so they probably wouldn't have had time to establish another large base yet."

_Fine.__  I make no promises of how close I'll get us, though._

"So long as you get us somewhere in Kanto, I'll be happy."

_Say that again in ten seconds,_ Espeon muttered.  Before Kaze could respond, or even wonder how it was possible to psychically mutter, Espeon's eyes glew yellow and the pair vanished.

~*~

The sun had finished setting about an hour ago, and Rio Starbright and Ryan Tani had been chatting the whole time while walking uphill along the path to Saffron.  The conversation had been that light getting-to-know-the-basics-about-you type.  Thus far, Rio thought that Ryan seemed pretty cool.  "So, if you're not going to be competing, where're you going to stay?" Ryan asked.

"Erm, I hadn't really thought about that," Rio reponded.  _Though I really should have,_ she added silently to herself.  _Now I sound like an idiot and have no place to stay._  "I usually just stay at the local pokemon center, but I guess it'll probably be packed.  I suppose I'll either find a hotel or camp along the edge of the city then.  How about you?"

"I'm staying at a hotel that's owned by my parents' old friend; I could probably get him to give you a discount if you'd like."

"You sure?  Asking for a discount for someone you just met might weird him out a little."

Ryan shrugged.  "You gave me a potion for Puck when he needed it.  He'll probably offer you a discount himself when he hears that.  Don't worry about it.  I mean, if you'd rather camp out or whatever..."

"No no no, hotel good.  I just didn't wanna make it seem like you had to or anything, cause that might weird out your parents' friend, but I do wanna stay there and..." The words were flying out of Rio's mouth so fast that she realized that Ryan might not be able to follow them, as she was neglecting quite a few of the spaces between words.  She trailed off and noticed that Ryan was laughing a little.  "Wow, I sound like an idiot, huh?"

Ryan had stopped laughing by this point but still had a big smile on his face.  "No no, you just reminded me of Casper there.  He's my misdreaveous; he always talks at that speed."

"You have a midreaveous that can talk?"

"Yeah.  You know how ghosts can use psychic moves?  They can use those same psychic abilities to talk, though that's not widely known.  Most ghosts don't really see the point in conversing with humans."

"Wow, cool.  So how come Casper talks to you then?"

"I'd like to say it's because I'm a good trainer, but realistically, I think he just likes to talk a lot.  A whole lot.  Do you have any pokemon that can talk?"

"Actually, yeah.  Both of my dark types, Nightrunner and Nightwing, an umbreon and murkrow respectively, can talk."

"I didn't know dark types could talk...they're immune to psychic abilities, how can they talk?"

"Got me, but mine can.  It sounds kind of like when psychic pokemon talk, but it's kind of different.  I'm not really sure how to explain it.  Every time I ask how they just tell me that it's better for some things to not be understood, and that dark type powers fall under that category."  Rio shrugged.  "I decided it's better not to press them about it."

"Huh.  I wonder if my houndooms can speak then."

"Got me.  I've never spoken to a houndoom before."

"Well aren't you the weird one," Ryan said, smiling.

"Beats the alternatives," Rio said, running her eyes along his body and making a disgusted facial expression.  In truth he was actually pretty cute, she especially liked the silver hair, but she wasn't about to tell him that.

"Ouch.  Burn."  As Ryan spoke, they reached the top of the hill and Rio noticed Saffron was just coming into view.  The city's lights made it stand out brilliantly against the rest of the scene and reflected out onto the grasslands. Rio stopped to admire the scenery.

"Wow, I'd forgotten what it was like to approach cities like this at night.  I usually only travel during the day."

Ryan started to respond, but was interrupted by the sound of an approaching gallop.  Rio turned toward it just in time to see a tauros burst out of the bushes and charge straight at them.  Ryan started to turn too, but Rio realized that by the time he finished turning and reacted to try to jump out of the way, he'd have either been gored or trampled.  Rio lept so that she slammed into his chest, knocking both of them out of the way just as he finished turning.  The tauros charged past the pair, skidded to a halt, and turned back to charge again.

"That's two you owe me," Rio said, reaching for Zypher's pokeball.

"Let me handle this, I've gotta at least try to even things out a bit," Ryan said, winking and reaching for one of his pokeballs.

"Alright," Rio said.  "Be careful though, it looks like it's at a pretty high level."

"Don't worry, won't be a problem.  Go, Bruiser!"

_Well, someone's a little cocky,_ Rio thought as the machoke materialized a few meters in front of them with a familiar white flash.

"Bruiser, use seismic toss!"

The tauros kicked up dust as it charged back at them.  Bruiser waited until the last second, then grabbed the charging pokemon by the horns, lifted it up, jumped, and tossed it down at the ground.  There was a loud crash as the tauros collided with the ground, followed by an expanding cloud of dust.  Bruiser landed outside the dust, close to his trainer and Rio.

"Well, I guess that takes care of that."

"Don't bet on it.  There aren't supposed to be wild tauros around here, and that one looked to be at a very high level."  The tauros burst out of the cloud and charged toward them again.

"Bruiser, mega punch."  The bull pokemon was knocked back several meters through the settling dust cloud and started charging again.  "If there aren't any wild tauros around here, where'd that come from?  Powerful pokemon like that don't just fall out of the sky you know."

As Ryan finished talking, there was a flash of golden light from overhead.  Two seconds later, a girl with a sword and an espeon had fallen onto Bruiser and bounced off to land in front of him.

"You were saying?" Rio asked.

~*~

The first thing Kaze noticed was pain in her ankle, which had presumably been injured during the fall.  The second thing she noticed was an angry tauros growling and charging at her.

"Holy shit!  Espeon, use psychic on that thing, _now_!"

Espeon didn't need to be told twice.  A blue glow appeared around the attacking pokemon, and it was hurled backwards over twenty meters.  It would have gone further, but for a stubborn rock in its path bringing it to a violent halt.  _What is it with teleporting and tauros'?_ Kaze thought to herself.  The tauros collapsed, unconscious.  Hearing breathing behind her, Kaze threw herself forward and turned to land in a fighting stance.  She found a machoke and a pair of rather bewildered looking humans facing her.

Kaze assessed the group quickly.  The machoke looked to be somewhere between level thirty and fourty, it wouldn't be a problem in a fight.  The guy, presumably the machoke's trainer as he was holding a pokeball in his hand, was rather short, with silver hair, blue tinted glasses, and all black clothing, save for red fingerless gloves on each hand.  Kaze counted nine pokeballs on his belt, which ment he either wasn't registered with the league or was taking time off.  If his machoke was any indication, he wouldn't be a problem in a fight.  The girl standing next to him was about an inch shorter, with long purple hair and black clothing.  Kaze counted six pokeballs on her belt.  She seemed much less surprised than her male counterpart, meaning she was probably more experienced, and Kaze made a mental note to target her pokemon first if it came to a fight.

"We don't wanna fight, calm down," the girl said.  "Ryan, recall Bruiser."  The boy, presumably Ryan, eyed Kaze warily but recalled the machoke.

"Who are you and why was that tauros attacking you?" Kaze asked.

"My name is Rio Starbright and this is my friend Ryan Tani, and as for the tauros, your guess is as good as mine.  Now who're you?" the girl responded.

"I'm Kaze Uta, and this is Espeon," Kaze said, gesturing toward Espeon with her hands.  Espeon nodded her head to acknowledge the humans.  "I didn't think there were tauros around here.  Well, if here is where I think it is anyway...where are we exactly?"

"Just outside of Saffron," Ryan said.  "And there shouldn't be tauros around here, you're right."

"So where did that one come from then?"

"Nice to meet you too," Rio said sarcastically.  "As I already said, we don't have a clue."

"He belongs to me," said a rather deep voice.  Kaze turned to see a man in a rocket uniform recalling the tauros.  "Just a little target practice.  You're not too bad, though I think I'll still kill you."  He released a pokemon that Kaze didn't recognize from his pokeball.  "Go, Mightyena!"

"What in Celebi's name is that?" Kaze asked.

"It's a dark type," Ryan said, "I recognize it from the time I spent in Hoenn.  Be careful, Mightyena are strong pokemon."

"Fuck.  I hate dark types," Kaze commented.  _Because Espeon can't fight well against them,_ she added silently.

Rio glared at her and released an umbreon from its pokeball.  "Go, Nightrunner!  Faint attack!"

"Mightyena, use bite when it reappears."

Nightrunner vanished and reappeared, slamming into Mightyena from the side.  Mightyena used the blow as momentum to swing itself around and bite the umbreon.

"Toss it up and finish it with a headbutt."  Three seconds later, Nightrunner was sliding away from Mightyena, fainted.  "You know, somehow I don't think that's what you meant by faint attack," the rocket taunted.  Rio glared and started reaching for another pokeball.

"I've got it," Ryan said.  "Go Bruiser!"

"Mightyena, quick attack."  Faster than Kazes eyes could follow, Mightyena had slammed into Bruiser and fainted the large machoke.

"Umm, this is not good," Ryan said, stating the obvious.

Kaze sighed and leapt at the rocket trainer, drawing her sword while in the air.  The trainer's eyes went wide as he realized what Kaze intended to do, but it didn't really matter.  A split second later Kaze severed his head from the rest of his body with a quick flick of her blade.  Mightyena let out a howl and turned to charge at Kaze, but Kaze just picked up its pokeball from its dead trainer's body and recalled it.

"You just...you just..." Ryan seemed incapable of finishing the sentence.

"Him or us, kid," Kaze said.  "I voted us.  You two have potions for your pokemon?"

"Yeah," Rio said.  Kaze noted that she didn't seem too phased.  A little shaken, but not unbelievably so.  She must have had run-ins with higher level Team Rocket agents before.  Rio opened her pack and pulled out two revives and two super potions.  

She tossed one of each to Ryan and used the others on Nightrunner.  Ryan caught them, mostly through reflex it seemed, and went to apply them to his pokemon.  Kaze wiped her blade on the grass to clean it, then got the other pokeballs from the rocket.

"What're you gonna do with them?" Rio asked.

"Leave them anonymously at the Saffron police station with a note explaining that they used to belong to a rocket level two agent.  They'll handle it from there.  We should get moving.  He might have brought friends, and I'd prefer not to meet them."

The pair nodded and Ryan recalled Bruiser.  "Nightrunner, follow us in shadow and make sure no darks are tracing us.  If you see any, don't fight them, revert to here and warn us immediately," ordered Rio.  Nightrunner nodded and melted into the shadows.

"Espeon, you keep an active scan on the surrounding area.  I'd like to know of any others before we meet them."

_Will do, Kaze.___

The four set off toward Saffron in silence, trailed through shadow by Nightrunner.

Post-Fic Author's Notes:

Review ^_^

I have chapter five written too, but I'm still editing it and I wanna have chapter six at least partially written before I post five.  


	5. Sabrina's Gym

Author's note: Many of my interpretations/ideas for dark type powers come from ff.n author Farla and her fic Pokemon Revolution.  Tis a wonderful fic and I suggest reading it.

Time's Edge

Chapter 5

Sabrina's Gym

On the bright side, the enormous line at the pokemon center was not the registration line.  On the down side, in order to be registered, both gyms had to approve of you as a "qualified trainer."  What exactly a "qualified trainer" was wasn't specified, so it probably wasn't as simple as "beat the heads of both gyms."  Given what'd happened last time Sarah had been in Saffron, she wasn't looking forward to returning to either gym.

They'd decided to head for Sabrina's gym first.  Mostly because it was nearest to Rei's house, so they wouldn't have far to go after the match.  Sarah was not looking forward to facing Sabrina again.  The woman was psychotic.  Sarah was wondering if she should suggest that Rei wait outside, just in case.

"Someone's nervous," Kyp said, breaking Sarah away from her inner monologue.

"Huh?" Sarah asked.

"You're not talking.  That means you're either unconscious or extremely nervous.  Or both."

"Well, I can't say I'm looking forward to seeing Sabrina again..."

"Why not?" Rei asked.

Sarah raised an eyebrow.  "Have you ever met Sabrina?"

"Yeah, plenty of times.  She gives weekly demos on psychic pokemon training, and I've gone to a few of them.  She's not scary or anything."

Sarah stopped walking under the light of one of the street's lampposts.  "The last time we were here, she tried to turn Kyp and I into dolls.  We barely ended up escaping with our lives.  Believe me, she's scary."

"I think I heard something about that, actually," Rei said.  "She's supposedly over that now and back to normal.  From what I've seen of her, she's as normal as psychics get."

"Right.  I'll believe that when I see it."

"Actually, if she was still like that, her gym license probably would have been suspended by now," Kyp pointed out.  "I think it's every two years that they do inspections of gyms."

"She's a psychic.  She could have messed with the inspectors mind."

"Possible," Kyp conceded.  "There's no way to know until we get there."

"I don't suppose Ditto would be willing to stay in mew form for a while, eh?"

"I would think that'd draw too much attention," Kyp said.

"Wait, doesn't a ditto have to see whatever pokemon it's trying to turn into?" Rei asked.

Sarah ignored Rei's question.  "Well, Kadabra then, or something?"

Kyp shrugged.  "That's up to Ditto."  He turned to Rei.  "All dittos have the ability to shapeshift however they want to.  Most of them have forgotten that over time though, so now only a few of the older, more experienced ones remember it.  The average ditto can only use transform."

"You expect me to believe that you have a ditto that can shapeshift into anything?" Rei asked.  "Do I look that gullible?"  Kyp smiled, and the pokeball on his belt detached itself and morphed into Ditto.

"Ditto."  Ditto then glew white and changed into a gengar.  "Gengar," he said, with a misjevious grin on his face.  Sarah found herself laughing at the startled expression on Rei's face.

_I'm going to phase out,_ Ditto-Gengar said psychically.  _It'll be more difficult for Sabrina to sense me that way._

"You could've just gone dark type.  It would probably be safer against psychics," Kyp said.

_I hate moving through shadow.  It's too empty.  I'd prefer she didn't see me immediately, which only leaves ghost type.  If there's a problem, I'd like to at least possibly have surprise on my side.  If there's a prolonged fight I'll shift to dark type._  Ditto-Gengar faded from view.  _Oh, and nice to meet you, Rei,_ he added, seemingly as an afterthought.

"Erm, nice to meet you too," Rei replied, clearly not comfortable with talking to an invisible pokemon.

"He takes some getting used to," Kyp said.  "He's a great guy once you get to know him though.  Anywho, we should resume walking toward the gym."

"Right," Sarah said, grimacing.  Within the next two minutes, the Saffron Gym had come into view, with two figures standing outside of it.  She was pretty sure that one of them was Sabrina, though it was hard to tell from such a distance.  Especially in the dark.  She shivered.

~*~

Lucas Contreardi allowed himself a small smile as officer Jenny released her growlithe and yelled to him that he was under arrest.  She had been the first one to figure him out in quite a few years.  He'd been getting sloppy.  He would have to relocate.  The woods around Saffron were a nice place to work, though he supposed moving closer to Lavender wouldn't be so bad.  And he'd soon have another Jenny to experiment on, which was always a plus.  He released Arcanine from her pokeball and watched the Jenny's eyes go wide.

"Arcanine, rip the growlithe's throat out with a bite attack."  The evolved dog pokemon was a blur of movement, and a second later, Officer Jenny's growlithe was twitching around on the ground, trying desperately to breathe through a no-longer-intact windpipe.  He was almost sorry for wasting the growlithe's life like that - it would have been helpful to have it as a test subject - but he couldn't restrain himself.  And the look of horror on the policewoman's face was worth it.

"Gengar, go!  Use hypnosis on Officer Jenny."  Jenny's eyes glazed over and then closed as she fell to the ground, unconscious.  "Arcanine, carry Jenny back to the shack and get ready to relocate."  Arcanine nodded, swung Jenny up on her back with a snap of her jaw, and bounded off toward the shack.  Lucas released Tentacruel and ordered her to use acid attack to burn away the growlithe's no-longer-twitching remains.  

~*~

As the trio got closer to the gym, Sarah could clearly make out Sabrina leaning against the outside of the door talking to boy with blond hair and a green jacket.  _Well, she doesn't look nearly as demonic as last time... maybe she has changed... still glad Ditto's watching us..._  Sabrina looked up from her conversation to greet the trio as they walked up the stairs.

She glanced at Sarah, then Rei, and then her glance hovered on Kyp for an extra second before she spoke.  "Hey.  I'm guessing you're here for tournament registration?"  

"Um, yeah, you guessed right.  So what do I have to do for it?"  Sarah asked, eyeing Sabrina suspiciously.

The boy she'd been talking to turned around, and Sarah recognized him as Joey Crawley, a trainer she'd run into a few times in past tournaments.  "Hey Sarah, hey Kyp, hey, um, sorry, I don't know you," he said, sweatdropping.

"Rei North, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Joey Crawler."

Sabrina responded as if Joey hadn't said anything.  "You and Joey face off.  I have a general idea of how skilled you should be to get into the tournament, so if you're both good, you're both in.  Three on three battle.  Come on in."

The five of them walked into the gym and headed for the arena.  "I think I recognize you from a few years ago," Sabrina said.  Sarah's muscles tensed.  "Sorry about everything that happened.  I wasn't exactly myself at that point."

"Er, okay," Sarah responded, relaxing a little.  Not much, but a little.

Sabrina smiled.  "Do you know you have a gengar trailing you?" she asked.

Ditto-Gengar materialized.  _Damn, you are a powerful psychic.  I was trying to hide my presence._

Sarah looked over at Kyp worriedly as Sabrina and Ditto continued to talk.  She still wasn't convinced that Sabrina was really "better," and it was unnerving that she'd been able to sense Ditto that easily.  Kyp smiled at her very slightly - she barely even noticed it - and continued walking.  _Thrice damned Elemental.__  Of course he's not worried.  He could actually fight her if it came to it._  It took Sarah all of five steps to realize that Ditto was still in Gengar form, so he could probably teleport them out if it came to it.

A creaking sound snapped her back to reality and she watched as the doors to the battling field opened, seemingly under their own power.  The room inside was bare except for an elevated chair at the very far end of it, and a full sized stadium field made of dirt.  Sarah walked over to the trainer box on the far side of the field and turned to face Joey, who had taken up the box nearer to the door.  She wasn't thrilled about being farther from the door, but realistically she realized it wouldn't matter.  If Sabrina wanted to keep them there, the only way they'd have out would be Ditto teleporting them.

Kyp, Rei and Ditto-Gengar sat along the side of the field watching.  Sabrina stood in front of them.  "This match will be a three on three pokemon battle.  No time limit.  Once pokemon have been recalled, they may not be sent out again.  Once you've both selected your first pokemon, you may begin."  Sabrina moved to sit down with the others.

_Well, this should be interesting,_ Sarah thought.  Joey was a pretty good trainer who used mostly bug types.  Unfortunatly, Fearow wouldn't be the best choice because of the tight space, so Sarah decided she probably wouldn't use her despite the type advantage she had against bugs.  She wanted to save Growlithe for now, which meant she should either open with Espeon or Magnetric.

_When in __Rome__..._ she thought, and reached for Espeon's pokeball.

~*~

Lucas had underestimated the Jenny, and he was mad.  Two mistakes in one day.  Pathetic.  When he'd gotten back to the shed, he'd discovered it was swarming with Jennys, who'd already fainted Arcanine by the time he got there.  The Jenny's growlithes had noticed his approach long before he knew they were there, and they now had him surrounded after having set up an ambush.

"You're under arrest!  Put your hands on your head!  The same for your pokemon!"  Lucas did as he was told and the black furred aipom on his shoulder followed suit.  One of the Jennys started walking forward, holding a pair of handcuffs.

_Well, as stupid as I've been, at least they're worse,_ Lucas thought as Aipom's tail slowly wrapped itself around Alakazam's pokeball.  One would think that the Jennys would be used to thinking about pokemon as physically different from humans by now, but apparently not.  As soon as the Jenny was far enough forward to force her compatriots to risk hitting her if they attacked, Aipom released Alakazam, who immediately teleported them out of the area.

When they reappeared about half a mile away, Lucas realized that they still had Arcanine.  He would have to go back.  With a slightly insane grin on his face, he released all of his pokemon from their pokeballs and ordered Alakazam to teleport them back in.

~*~

"Magnetric, thunderbolt!" Sarah called.  The attack hit Joey's scizor perfectly.  Scizor being a flying metal bug and all, it promptly fainted to the electric attack.

_Well, that evens things out then, _Sarah thought_._  After Scizor had taken down Espeon so fast she'd been worried that he might be able to dodge the electric attacks, but thankfully that wasn't the case.  Although he had managed one good hit on Magnetric before fainting.

"Ariados, go!" Joey called.  The spider pokemon materialized on the field.

"Magnetric, thunderbolt!"

"Ariados, protect!"

Ariados' eyes glew and the thunder attack bounced harmlessly away.  "Now use spider web!"

"Agility!" Sarah yelled.  Magnetric was a blur, and the web that Ariados had fired missed him by quite a bit.

"Ariados, dig!"

"Keep moving Magnetric!"  Ariados vanished under the ground and then exploded out from under Magnetric, throwing him nearly to the other side of the stadium.

_That is a powerful Ariados,_ Sarah thought.  "Quick attack!" she ordered.

"Ariados -" before Joey could finish calling his command, Magnetric slammed into Ariados and sent the bug sprawling.

"Finish it with a thunderbolt!"

"Psychic!"

"What?"  Ariados' eyes glew blue and Magnetric's thunderbolt attack changed direction in midair, slamming back into him.  He fainted.

"Magnetric, return!"  _I hate fighting psychics,_ Sarah thought, repressing the urge to glance at Sabrina.  "Growlithe, I choose you!"  The dog pokemon materialized in a fighting stance, instantly ready.  "Flamethrower and dig!"

"Use psychic again, Ariados!"  Ariados caught the flames and started to direct them back toward Growlithe, but the fire puppy was no longer there.  Confused, Ariados let the attack dissipate in midair, and before Joey could call another order, Growlithe burst out from under him and sent him flying.

"Quick Growlithe, use flamethrower while he's still in the air!"  There was a burst of flame from Growlithe's mouth, and the charred Ariados hit the ground a second later, unconcious.

"Ariados, return!  Go Venomoth!  Psybeam!"

"Flamethrower!"

~*~

Officer Jenny was not happy that the criminal had escaped.  She was not happy at all.  It had been hard enough to assemble this many of them to take him down to begin with.  Doing it again would be near impossible, if they could even find him.  According to the trigger-happy Jenny who'd tried to take him down alone, they probably wouldn't be able to find him again.  She'd spent years trying to track him, and still believed that she only managed to succeed through luck.

Jenny turned to see one of her younger counterparts coming out of the shack.  "Report," Jenny said.

"There's a lot of stuff in there... I have no idea what most of it's for, but it looks dangerous."

"Right, well in that case-"  Jenny was interrupted by a flash of light from behind her.  Upon turning to look, she recognized the criminal, and several pokemon.  A gengar, an alakazam, a hitmonlee and a tentacruel.  Plus that damned black monkey on his shoulder.  Jenny was sure the growlithe squad they had could take down the pokemon.  The important thing was that the criminal had been foolish enough to return, and Jenny wouldn't let him get away a second time.  "Growlithe, use your-"  Jenny never got the chance to finish, as her neck was snapped by Hitmonlee's hi jump kick.  She was dead before she hit the ground.

~*~

On the field, Growlithe split into seven identical images as Venomoth launched a gust attack, kicking up hordes of dust.  All of the growlithe images were caught in the dust, but Sabrina could feel that the real Growlithe hadn't been hit.  Seconds later, streams of flame burst out of the cloud.  None of them hit Venomoth, but they did burn the dust away.

Both of the trainers were doing well, Sabrina thought, as she watched the battle.  She was pretty sure she'd approve them both for the tournament.  She hoped Sarah wouldn't remain hostile to her forever - she really was sorry about what had happened, and really was better - but she couldn't blame the young trainer if she couldn't forget it. 

"Growlithe, fire blast!"

"Venomoth, hyper beam!"

The powerful attacks met in the center of the battlefield in a massive explosion.  Sabrina turned and covered her eyes in response to the approaching dust cloud.  When she looked back, both pokemon were a little worse for the wear, but still standing.  Sarah ordered Growlithe to use flamethrower on the temporarily exhausted Venomoth, but before the pokemon could launch the attack, Sabrina felt a strong, throbbing pain in her head and called out.

"Sabrina?  What's wrong?" Rei asked.

"I don't know.  Pain," she replied, gritting her teeth.  As she spoke, the pain faded, and she snapped back to reality.  "What _was_ that?" she asked, thinking aloud.

_Someone just died nearby,_ Ditto-Gengar said, wincing.  _Painfully.__  Quite a few someones I'd bet._

Sabrina reached out with her psychic senses and scanned the city.  Nothing.  She expanded the radius to the surrounding area.  _There,_ she thought, as she located the disturbance.  "Ditto's right," Sabrina said.  "I'm going to go check it out.  You're both approved by my gym to compete in the tournament, but this match is finished for now."

"I'm coming with you," Kyp said.  Sabrina started to object, but thought the better of it.  There was something weird about that one.  She couldn't put her finger on it, and didn't want to scan him.  Even though it wouldn't hurt him it would be violating his privacy, and she didn't sense anything dangerous.  Whatever it was, something was telling her to let him come, so she nodded.

"Ditto, are you coming too?" Kyp asked.  Sabrina blinked.  She had just assumed that Ditto would be coming with his master.

_No,_ he replied.  _You and Sabrina should be able to handle whatever it is, I'm going to see if I can intercept any of the dead people's spirits before they cross over_. Still in gengar form, Ditto faded from sight.

"Alright, let's go," Sarah said.

"You're not coming," Sabrina responded.  Sarah started to object, but Sabrina cut her off.  "Your pokemon are tired from fighting.  Whatever's there probably isn't going to be friendly, and we can't be looking out for you."

"But Kyp doesn't even have any other pokemon than Ditto!" Joey said.

"Get over it, we don't have time for this," Kyp responded.  With his ditto not coming, Sabrina almost said that Kyp couldn't come either, but she thought the better of it.  His ditto certainly seemed to believe that Kyp could handle himself.

"He's right, we don't.  I'm sorry, but Kyp's the only one who's coming along.  You three go report this to the police."  With that, Sabrina's eyes flared blue and the pair teleported to the crime scene, leaving several very unhappy trainers behind.

Author's Notes:

Sorry that took so long.  My school is nearing the end of the semester, so I'm getting the workload piled on now.  Yahoo for work!  My semester ends May 8th, so I should be home sometime on the 10th, and should be able to post the next chapter by the 11th or 12th at the latest.  Ideally, I'll try to post it within the next week or two, but finals be evil, so I can't promise anything.  I will include in the next chapter which character for this chapter was whose.


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